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The state of cannons right now is a little unusual, and while it has been ok for the game to this point, the upcoming Wreker and Téméraire class ships currently in development are likely to change this and we are soon likely to see a risk of the game balance being rocked in the future, with both Téméraire and Wreker able to equip 36s and with Wreker somewhat more notably likely able to equip 32s on her second deck. Under the game mechanics as they are this means that both these ships would be able to also equip the heaviest standard armament in the game, the 42lb cannon, which a potentially creats some weird looking situations where we have people running around in 3rd rates with 42lb guns or we end up rating Téméraire as a 2nd rate, neither are desirable outcomes in my opinion. I would like to propose breaking up 36s and 42s.
As I understand it the cannons in question are based off the British 42lb and the French 36lb, who's shot weights are as follows:
British 42lb: Shot weight 19.026kg, Gun Weight 3957kg (short cut 42 from Victory, standard would be heavier)
French 36lb: Shot weight 17.064kg, Gun Weight 3643kg (standard long 36 from Boudroit's figures)
With the accessibility of cannon classes currently set up like this:
42lb, 36lb
32lb
24lb
18lb, Edinorog
12lb
9lb
N/A
6lb
4lb
4lb Basic
2lb
This is somewhat of a bizarre set up in two areas, 1st and 7th class. 1st class is bizarre as the only class to contain two distinctly different gun weightings, while 7th class is even more illusive due to the fact it contains no cannons at all, only the 18lb carronade. What would make infinitely more sense to the game would be to rerate everything slightly so as to have cannon classes set up as follows.
42lb
36lb
32lb
24lb
18lb, Edinorog
12lb
9lb
6lb
4lb
4lb Basic
2lb
The other benefits of this is you could reassess which ships could potentially equip each class of cannon more precisely, potentially leaving the most powerful 42lb for Pavel, Victory and leaving Ocean, Santissima, Téméraire, Bucentaure and Wreker equipped with the slightly smaller calibre of 36lb gun, this would not only give a slightly more realistic historic armament flavour but also create a nice little way to look at balance more seriously, with the 36lb gun being a little worse on the DPS, which allows both Pavel and Victory to be more competitive amongst their similarly rated ships, hopefully promoting more variety in combat.
As a little side note I'm uncertain whether Ocean would be able to carry 42s or not, the 300kg difference between the French 36 and the British shortest variant of the 42 isn't hugely significant to a ship the size of Ocean although it would be a nice balance point, meanwhile I severely doubt Santissima would be able to mount the British 42 safely, had she not been wrecked in the storm and then enlisted into the British fleet following Trafalgar I can't see her being armed with anything heavier than the British 32s.
To summarise, please could we consider splitting the 42 and 36lb guns up into separate classes to avoid potential balance issues with the current ships in development but also add more flavour and realistic armaments to the various ships we already have in game for the pursuit of balance and accuracy.
Thanks for reading.

Most famously used in the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 only 5 years after the last Battle of Copenhagen that saw deployment of the Christian VII that was recently added.
I think as it fits in the timeframe of NA, it should at least be considered. I also don't think there is a balance issue. The actual performance could remain the same ( only with much higher chance for a fire ) or there could alternatively also be a reskin of the Mortar Brig called HMS Terror / HMS Meteor with higher BR to compensate for potentially higher performance / buffs in damage.
Even if only the visuals would be added at some point, I think it would make for more interesting cinematics in port battles. Adding only higher fire chance seems reaonable, given the minor effect of fire ( unless used on purpose to fireship ) and the low chance of currently implemented mortar balls actually causing fire.

@admin this is the third thread I'm making about this over the last 2 years. The way people can control fires is just retarded. Nothing more than retarded. I've seen people control fires over the time of 50min....Survival should not be an option to turn off! If someone wants to fireship the mod itself should unlock survival as an option and imo fireships should be overhauled as ai fleet ship maybe.

Ive complained about this enough now and would please like a response to fire management issues that break the game. We stern raked a trinc with single shot to avoid fire and after five shots he was on fire and controlling it to sink the ship. Please for the love of good tell me why it is possible??? It is human nature to survive and survival should not be a toggle. https://prnt.sc/fn1xnv
5 balls ship is dead
If you want fireships to be a tactic make a mod that deactivates survival altogether.

Currently you need a module to make an effective fire ship. Modules are going away, and there will be learned skills related to ships sailed. How will fire ships be handled in the new version of the software?

My Fellow Sailors:
A few ideas i have thought about, and talked about on global, have finally been written down. A few of these have been brewing for awhile, and a few came up while writing. Im sure most of these have been talked about, and may be in the forums. No, i didn't search the forum for these topics. No, i don't really care if there are other threads covering these. These are my thought, basically as they came to me, either through reading notes or remembering conversations. Lets help the devs bring out the potential of Naval Action.
------------------------ Fire Barrels -------------------------------------------------------
Ships with horrible turning can be destroyed by smaller ships. A surprise can stern camp a santi and take it down without too much trouble(Just tons of time). Trading ships also have a habit of being ganked, chained, and capped. To offset these annoyances, i propose fire/exploding barrels.
The intention would be to deter or slow down a following ship. It would be a barrel dropped off the stern of the ship, with a timer set by the player(slider?), and it explodes and causes a large flame. The barrel wouldn't be meant to destroy the ship, just cause minor damage. It could potentially catch sails on fire, and cause some sort of crew or rigging shock. If the barrel exploded towards the rear of the ship, it could cause rudder damage. The timer would have a time to detonation range of 3-30 seconds, so it has the ability to damage pursuers that are further away, as well as close up. The timer would need to have a variable on the actual set time (due to a fuse having to be measured and cut in battle) between a flat 15-25% time variation. The other option would be 10% on the "too short" side and 25% on the "too long" side. This allows for the chance it can prematurely explode and damage the ship of the person dropping the barrel. Each ship shouldn't have more than 3-5 barrels, scaled to the rate of the ship. 4th-5th rates have 1 or 2 barrels, 3rd rates 3, 2nd rates 4, 1st rates 5. If a ship is carrying barrels, no less than 2 should be carried in case one doesn't explode. Rates lower than 5th shouldn't need them due to shallow hulls/lack of player use. The barrels could be an upgrade option (non permanent since its only barrels) with each "tier" allowing more barrels than the last (Basic -> Exceptional). Also, a prep time should be included, with the option to drop the barrel early. Dropping the barrel early would increase the "error" range of the fuse, up to 15% greater than a fully prepped barrel. This also opens up the option for a skill, such as decreasing fuse error or lowering the prep time. The purpose of the barrels wouldn't be to act as a main weapon, but as a last resort for defense.
------------------------ Officer Skills -------------------------------------------------------
Officer skills allow us to make our sailing styles a little more unique. Sadly, the skills don't vary enough to keep anyone guessing how an enemy ship will handle in battle. I propose keeping the officer skills, but also adding Captain Skills. Your officer gets 1 "skill" point per rank, with a max of 10 points. The diversity of skill choices to ship choices isn't that great. Captain skills could be implemented to switch that up a bit, make people guess a little more. Captain skills would be attached to the players avatar, not their officer, and would gain a few points at certain rank milestones. The captains skills could include things like cannon trials(reload speed, dispersion,etc...), rigging specialist (Sail rising and yard turn speed, lower damage to sails), shipwright (adds extra bonuses to ships beyond what the regular player makes, use less LH or supplies), boarding training (similar to marines, but for the crew), wind master (adds slight speed bonus to ship), entrepreneur ( better prices in port shops, lower costs for contracts), hull tech (better/faster repairs while at sea or in battle,High enough level allows 2 repairs in battle), shipboard defense (better defense against boarders, defensive only), leadership (adds more overall crew to the crew pool, not to the ship itself). The milestones could be set points between each rank. Each rank could have 2 milestones( current level -> milestone I -> milestone II -> next level), with each milestone giving a certain amount of skill points. Rank 1(Thief) starts with 3 points, milestone I gives 2 points, milestone II gives 1 point, rank 2 (Rascal) gives 3 point, milestone I gives 2 points, milestone II gives 1 point, etc . . . up to rank 10 (Curse) which will give 3 points, but no milestones since it is the highest rank. Having a system like this will make grinding feel more rewarding, while making each player more unique. The skills could be categorized by sailing, crafting, and trading. Having the option to choose a captain skill, without the risk of losing them, would make players feel more connected to the game community. It would also allow specialization of each player, such as a player being a dedicated ship builder, but not having the same sea prowess as a dedicated fighter. This wouldnt negate the "perks" (no longer skills) one would get from their officer. The officer perks would allow everyone to have a baseline set of attributes so they could still do a little of everything.
------------------------ Port Shop -------------------------------------------------------
The port shop needs a little streamlining. If i sell something at the bottom of a list (i.e resources), it sends me back to the top of the list. While it is only a minor inconvenience, that little bit of time adds up to a lot of frustration when trying to sell quickly. The slider when buying/selling is also a pain to use. Using a +1,+5,+10 next to the slider would be helpful. When buying cannons the shop only allows 1 purchase at a time. I think the maximum should be raised to at least 5 when buying. If i want to use the same cannon for bow/stern chasers and broadside, i would like to be able to buy them all at once. With the lag in the system, that can also become frustrating.
------------------------ Warehouse -------------------------------------------------------
The warehouse can become extremely cluttered, and difficult to find something. I know there is an option to show certain types of items, but being able to create my own tabs would be beneficial. Tabs such as "ship build", "future upgrades", or "trade-able goods" would make playing a little less cumbersome. An option to "Show items in shop" would also be appreciated, so i can choose to not see the items in the shop and accidentally sell them.
------------------------ Ship Docks -------------------------------------------------------
Currently we can only have 5 ships docked at a port. I think the maximum should be raised (8-12) through gold purchases. To keep it a little less cluttered, a building (private dockyard) could be built, and each upgrade increase the maximum ships allowed in the port.
------------------------ Clans -------------------------------------------------------
Clan ranks are a big miss when it comes to forming a community . The current system of owner/officer/member seems a bit shallow for a group of people playing together. The ability to have more "ranks" in a clan would give people a view-able goal to strive for, and to show their value to that clan. It can also be set up to allow clan members to be easily recognized of their role (crafter, trader, raider OR Leader,1st mate, 2nd mate, senior crewman, junior crewman, recruit). Having the ability to transport goods from ANY city to the clan warehouse would be nice, or showing on the clan page where the warehouse is located.
I appreciate everyone who took the time to read through, and all comments will be appreciated, and discussion is encouraged. Great games are not made. Great games are shaped. Shaped by the ideas of players, and the following discussions. Naval Action has a ton of potential, and i would like to see it become one of the greats.
Fair winds and following seas
--- Wonderbread O7
Please excuse my lack of observation, I did my best to make sure there are as few grammatical errors as possible.

A couple days ago I set fire to an AI ship in two separate battles.
In the first battle the AI ship blew up. This is the first time I've been able to blow up an AI ship with fire in probably 6 months. Usually they almost always put out the fire, even if I set it on fire multiple times.
In the second battle the ship was on fire and sinking. As it was going down the fire spread up the masts to be burning at the top of the ship. I have never seen that before in 11 months playing.
These two things lead me to believe the devs have changed the fire mechanics significantly in the last week or two in a patch. Does anyone else know if this is true, or have any similar recent experiences? Or did I miss a patch description or writeup about this?

In general, I have not been able to put out a ship's fire on my own ships, and have lost at least 3 in this manner. In general, I have set fire to AI ships in missions numerous times, and they always seem to be abe to put out a fire, even in multiple instances for the same ship in the same battle.
Can someone weigh in on the probability of fire initiation, both for human players and AI ships? Also, how does the probability of fire extinguishing work? Is it dependent on crew strength? Or is all of this competely random?
If it's currently random, I'd like to see some tiny probability added of potentially hitting a ship's magazine and immediate explosion, with results of total ship loss or else massive damage. Gives a possibility of turning the tide of battle. Also, it'd be nice to see a probability increase for fire whenever a cannon is taken out by opposing gunfire. I actually saw a large spark fly off one of my cannons recently, which implied increased probability I would catch fire.....fortunately that time I didn't
Probably could be some enhancements made to how fire is handled in the game. Anyone want to comment or help clear up the smoke here? Thanks in advance.

I think the incorporation of setting a ship on fire is an awesome feature of the damage model. However, I think on-board fires are far too weak and aren't much of a threat. I have set a number of vessels on fire, have seen others lit up, and had my own set on fire on a number of occasions and only seen one explode. That's ok, I am not looking to see more explosions but shouldn't a ship made of wood, cloth and packed with gunpowder be under far more danger when on fire?
As before, its not difficult to set a vessel on fire in the game and it happens at least once in larger battles but I see a vessel get ignited and I just think "Well, it will be out 20 seconds" and if its the AI, almost all fires will be extinguished no matter how many times it started (unless they have minimal crew, of course). Extinguishing a fire seems to have as much urgency as fixing a pump or rudder and the only real threat to not extinguishing it on time is that after several minutes it may hit the magazine and detonate it.
I think a fire should be harder to start and more rare in battle, but once it happens I believe that it should be one of the most devastating things that can happen to a ship. I think that over time, the fire should damage the hull more, kill crew, destroy cannons, damage sails and so forth for the duration of the blaze. I don't feel it should just be another thing that happens in battle which will be fixed and no longer a threat in just a few moments. I am Captain and have been in a number of engagements and just don't feel that the fires have that "urgency" to them as I feel they should have had during the Age of Sail.
Just a thought. If anyone has any ideas or opinions, I would love to hear them.
Great game by the way. Number one most played game in my Steam Library.

Hi Captains..
We wanted to discuss fire mechanics to see what we can add before we code them in.
(prototype fires implementation)
Fire Mechanics
Damaged ship becomes more susceptible to fires: splinters everywhere, broken powder kegs, powder charges laying around, injured sailors dropping fuses etc.
Fire appears locally and spreads around with certain speed - T1
If kept unchecked fire will overwhelm the whole ship and reach the powder magazines
Large fires will have a chance to move to another ship if it is very close - bringing new tactical elements and depth
Fire acts like a DOT - slowly destroying planking of the ship
Explosion Mechanics
When fire reaches powder magazines they explode. Explosion brings massive damage to planking and crew, maybe destroying some masts
Explosion has a radius - ships within the radius will be damaged by the shockwave. If they are close shockwave will be very strong: demasting them and breaking planking
This also brings new tactical elements to battle - should i repair and stop the fire or should i burn and explode in that nice group of enemy ships
Repairs
Fire first has to be stopped - using the repair kit - or something similar
And then fire has to be extinguished - by going on survival
Speed of extinguishing depends on crew numbers and pumps number and quality - T2
If T2 is higher than T1 fire will not spread and disappear eventually
We are also considering making fire spread slower if you have lots of water in the hull (not sure)
Question
How do we make fire extinguishing more interesting? I mean how we can bring tactical decisions into it. Alternatively it can just stay - press the button - if you have crew and repair ability you will stop the fire.
also discuss and provide ideas on the general thing
some fires

Even on smooth/Sea state reasonably calm maps I have noticed that the Santissima's lowest gundeck is not available to fire even before shots are exchanged, even when it is heeling which should raise the gundecks targetting height. eg wind from starboad beam firing starboard gundeck.
Santi - lower gundeck 42 lber. Sea state calm.
Has anyone else encountered this ?

As a group of enthusiasts we were spit balling this around a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps less important during testing but a simple solution to friendly fire and collision at release.
Damaged caused is real. It happened, fog of war, stupidity, heat of the moment bad decision etc. During the game the damage stands.
The ship causing the friendly damage has double the points removed from its match score to a minimum of zero points. (Think of this as an on the spot Court Martial inquiry fine and slap on the knuckles). Should point scoring not be taking place, then the fine could be applied as a currency cost either 'as well as' or instead.
As the game applies damage and collates points scored I would have thought that blue on blue damage could be recorded relatively easily and then the 'fine' applied for the end of match result.
Your thoughts ?
Posted on behalf of
Sea Lords Virtual Fleet Soundboard group Join Here
Captains
Crankey
Caldwell
Master_Scrub
Heneage Dundas
Robert Danforth
Edward Vernon
Patrick Walsh
Llewellyn Jones RN
FLGibsonJr
Edward Harvey
Jack Aubrey
Aplogies if we are repeating anyone elses suggestion here I couldn't locate a direct comparison post.